Review: Battlefield 1943 - Xbox 360, PS3

Let the battle commence!

What’s it about?
Spawning from the popular Battlefield series and based on the World War II Pacific campaign, Battlefield 1943 is a typical first person shooter that pits the US Marine Corps against the Japanese Imperial Army in a territorial battle across three island locations. Costing just £10 and weighing in at a meagre 565Mb, DICE Studio’s downloadable Xbox Live and PlayStation Network multiplayer shooter started of on launch day by offering gamers three classic Battlefield maps to wage war on: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima.

Xbox 360 gamers, however, have today reached a target of 43 million accumulative kills set by DICE Studios on launch day to unlock a new map, titled Coral Sea, and a brand new game mode, named Air Superiority, which can now be played alongside Battlefield's signature Conquest mode. (The new map and mode is currently not available to PS3 gamers until they too reach the milestone.) Battlefield 1943 features the signature fast-paced, action-packed and explosive gameplay of the Battlefield series and caters for 24 players (12 vs.12) online. In this bite-sized chunk of the complete Battlefield experience, you're given access to three classes, Infantry, Rifleman and Scout, in addition to an array of World War II vehicles that take you across land, sea and air, including fighter planes, tanks and landing craft.

Each class has its own primary and secondary weapon and therefore switching between the three allows you to change your tactics depending on preference or the current situation you find yourself in. The scout, for example, is an expert at long-range warfare and comes equipped with a sniper rifle and explosives, whereas the infantry man, equipped with a sub-machine gun and a rifle grenade launcher, is more adept at close-quarter fighting.

Killing the enemy by utilising the range of weapons and vehicles available not only sways the battle in your favour but also improves your ranking on the online leaderboard and gives you bragging rights in the end-of-game stats screen. Battlefield 1943 is meant to be played as a team-game with the overall goal being to take control of the five territories across the various locations. Indeed team-work is encouraged by a squad system, an enhanced version of the one from Bad Company, which allows players to team up into smaller groups of four and privately chat. The squad leader is also able to mark the flags that represent each territory with attack or defend commands so that the squad knows what they should be doing.

A new hotzone system analyzes the map and works out the area where the most enemies are situated, therefore giving you the option to rush over to help out your team-mates. Though Battlefield 1943 is predominantly about capturing territories and working together as a team, you can go about winning in an infinite number of ways and tailor the experience to your own enjoyment. It's Battlefield as we know it, albeit a pint-sized version crammed into a relatively small 565Mb downloadable package.

Gameplay impressions overleaf...

Note: We haven't played the new map or the new game mode that was unlocked today.